Hyderabad: The financial management of Telangana state is better than that of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh. The former AP government headed by N. Chandrababu Naidu doled out many sops to the people before the Assembly elections, which put a burden on the state.
According to the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), the AP government has a revenue deficit of Rs 11,726 crore at the end of the 2018-19 financial year, against the budget projection of Rs 5,235 crore revenue surplus.
The reason for having revenue deficit against the budget projection of revenue surplus is the AP government’s indiscriminate borrowings from wherever possible to meet the expenditure to woo the voters.
The Telangana state government had projected only Rs 5,520 crore revenue surplus in the budget estimate, but at the end of the financial year, it was Rs 7,523 crore.
If one compares the total revenue receipts in the 2018-19 financial year, there was not much difference between the two Telugu states.
Total revenue receipts of the AP government were 77.92 per cent of the budget estimate while in Telangana state it were 78.45 per cent. The main difference was in the capital receipts. At the end of the financial year, the total capital receipts in AP were 169. 04 per cent of the budget estimate, while in Telangana state it were 84.24 per cent.
In the annual budget, the AP government projected capital receipts of Rs 24,705.21 crore, but at the end of the financial year, the capital receipts were Rs 33,751. 39 crore.
The Telangana state’s government’s projected capital receipts were Rs 36,884.24 crore and it ended the financial year with capital receipts of Rs 24,135.91 crore.
The AP government spent around Rs 10,000 crore on Pasupu-Kumkuma, Annadatha Sukhibhava and pension schemes which were not in the budget.
The development of the state depends on capital expenditure in creating assets for the state. The AP government borrowed more but spent less in capital expenditure. It spent only 64.16 per cent on capital expenditure against its budget projections.
The Telangana government spent 84.53 per cent against its budget projection. Of the `1,78,950.48 crore Budget, AP projected Rs 28,678.49 crore as capital expenditure. At the end of the financial year the actual capital expenditure was Rs 20,459.31 crore. The TS government’s annual Budget of Rs 1,58,823.80 projected Rs 33,369.10 cro-re as capital expenditure and the actual spending was Rs 22,908.16 crore.
The TS revenue expenditure was 76.71 per cent of its Budget projection and in AP 95.81 per cent. Compared to the previous financial year, the revenue expenditure in TS increased by 1.87 per cent in 2018-19 and in AP by 11.68 per cent.
The capital expenditure increased by 15.88 per cent in Telangana state in 2018-19 compared to the previous year and in AP decreased by 7.18 per cent.
